July 25, 2024: Peak Energy, a sodium-ion battery developer, announced this week it has secured a $55 million series ‘A’ funding to launch full-scale production of its battery technology.

The US-based company said the funding will enable it to move faster to industrialize sodium-ion batteries. It comes nine months after its $11 million seed round.

Peak Energy’s sodium-ion batteries  will be used by six customers participating in its pilot program next year. These include three of the five largest independent power producers and electric utility companies in the US.

Xora Innovation, an Early-Stage deep tech investing platform of Temasek, led the round, with participation from existing investor Eclipse, strategic partner TDK Ventures, and new investors Lachy Groom, Tishman Speyer, TechEnergy Ventures, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures and DETV-Scania Invest.

This latest investment follows Peak Energy’s appointment of Apple and Tesla veteran, Liam O’Connor as co-founder and COO.

The company says it is on track to break ground on building the first US, giga-scale sodium-ion battery factory. This should open in 2027.

US energy demand is skyrocketing. With the rise of AI and increased EV adoption, electricity demand is forecast to grow as much as 20% by 2030. This represents a massive jump after a decade of flat growth — and as a result, electric utilities are almost doubling their forecasts for how much additional power they’ll need to produce by 2028.

A generative AI system might use around 33 times more energy than machines running task-specific software, according to a recent study.

“AI should represent a step forward, not a step backward,” says Landon Mossburg, co-founder and CEO of Peak Energy. “As energy demand grows, we must capitalize on the potential of renewables to provide dependable, inexpensive energy to fuel a new era of technological advancement. Utility-scale storage powered by sodium-ion is the answer to securing this future on a resilient, decarbonized grid.”